A Little, No A Lot Scared

Bella has had some problems since birth. She screams ALL the time. She doesn't sleep soundly and is routinely up until 2 or 3am. We took her to the pediatrician when I just couldn't take it any longer with out losing my mind. She was diagnosed with possible acid reflux. They put her on Zantac twice a day. It did NOTHING for her. So a little over a week later we went back to the pediatrician. This time they put her on Prevacid and again it did nothing for her. In fact she stopped sleeping. She was awake for 22 out of 24 hour in a day. We stopped giving her that med and went back to the Zantac trying to bide our time until January 3rd when we had an appointment with a pediatric GI doctor.

January 3rd comes around and we head out to the specialist. She reviews Bella's symptoms telling us it sounds just like her second child. She said it sounded like reflux to her but she wanted to run and upper GI test to be sure they were not missing anything. So we scheduled the upper GI for Friday January 7th (yesterday.) The GI doctor put Bella on a new medicine for acid and told us to make a follow up appointment in 3 weeks. So January 28th we are headed back to see her again.

January 7th comes around and we are again on the way to a medical appointment. This one had a catch though. Bella was not allowed to eat for 4 hours before the appointment, which if you know Bella she likes to eat every 3 hours! They wanted her hungry because she had to drink some very nasty white stuff that is reflective for the test. So she stays up until 2:30am and only eats 2 ounces at that time. 6:30am rolls around and she is mad as a hornet because she is hungry and wants to eat. We hurried and got dressed, me while Chelo was holding her and Chelo while I was holding her. Then we jumped in the car hoping the car ride would lull her to sleep until her appointment at 8:30am. IT WORKED! She fell asleep in the car and we arrived at the hospital at 7:53am. Thankful that they were running ahead of schedule and called us back almost right away. They proceeded to strap Bella down so they could rotate her to get the films they needed. This included strapping her arms up by her head. She was NOT a happy baby. She was a good baby and ate the nasty white stuff fairly easily so they got the test completed in about 10 minutes and we were able to feed her a real bottle. The lady running the test said everything looked good to her but the doctor would have the results in 3-4 days and would call. Imagine my surprise when they called the same afternoon.

It was a phone call I will never forget. They said that all of her anatomy was formed correctly so that was a good thing. They also said that she showed some minor reflux but that is normal so they were not concerned with that either. Then she said something I will never forget. "We found a vessel in her heart that is in the wrong place." WHAT? She explained to me that they are sending her to a pediatric cardiologist because she has a vessel in her heart that should come out from the right side but instead it comes out from the left side and wraps around her heart where it eventually ends up in the right place. Though it is pressing slightly on her esophagus and may be causing some of her problems. She tried to tell me not to worry that they usually just do an untrasound of her heart and then watch the condition. That did not make me feel any better. So now we are headed to another specialist on February 1st.

It is weighing very heavy on my heart that something could be wrong with Bella. I am left to sit and wonder why, even though I know we are not supposed to ask why. It is always said that God does not give more than we can handle, but He is giving me credit for being far stronger than I feel right now.

The Arrival of Bella Grace 10/28/10

The day in pictures!

In triage waiting to go to the OR

All smiles waiting on his baby girl

Ready to roll

Dr Greenberg with Bella Grace

She came out screamingOur tiny girl

Getting warm

First time mommy got to hold herFeed me!

I see you!

Finally all wrapped up and getting settled

Mia getting her baby when she came to meet her little sister

Bella's first bath

Getting in a nap on the warmer

Sweet face

Hi daddy

Cuddles

Proud daddy

Mia relaxing

Mommy and Mia

Mia with her little sister

Proud PawPaw

BB loves her new grandbaby

Uncle TJ came to visit

Worn out, drugged, but oh so happy mommy!

Daddy cuddle time

Momaw was here to celebrate Bella's birth

Such a sweet face

My girls!

Another Attempt

I am going to attempt to start updating the blog again for those of you who used to read it and do not have access to facebook.

A quick family update.

Mia is 23 months old now and a full of nonstop energy. She talks up a storm and I believe she is way ahead in her speech considering she can say anything she wants to and does! She loves to be outside. It doesn't matter the weather cold/hot or rain/shine she wants to play outside. She is not a tom boy but she is not prissy either, just don't let her hands or feet get "yucky." She is such a big girl and is growing so fast and learning new things. Oh and Mia is a BIG SISTER!

Bella Grace was born 10/28/10 Weighing in a 5lbs. 13oz. and was 18 1/4 inches long. She is not your typical baby. Right now we are battling fits of screaming for seemingly no reason at all and at all hours of the day and night. She eats well and sleeps well when not screaming. She is 100% healthy which after Mia you know what a blessing that is to us. Even with her imperfections she is perfect.

Chelo and I are making it on minimal sleep and him working 7 days a week right now. My wonderful mother has been such a blessing and a huge help with Mia and Bella as we battle these issues in the first few weeks. I am scheduled to go back to work in January and I am looking forward to it. It just doesn't seem right not to work for me. I have had a job since I was 16. 12 weeks off feels insane.

A new post with pictures to some soon and hopefully at least once or twice a week I can update a new post and pictured of our life!

11 Months

10 Months

Mia is 10 months old. The count down to the big ONE is on! The planning is in full swing. How does this affect her? It doesn't. She just goes about her day playing so hard that she is exhausted at night. She crawls, chatters, dumps the dog water bowl, gets Granny's pine cones out of the tree, chases the dogs, tries to climb the stairs, eats Cheerios , kisses her baby, turns circles on her bottom, laughs when you sneeze, and oh yeah WALKS! That's right I just said my 10 month old is walking. Welcome to the real world mommy. This last month has been amazing. Mia has learned so much and grown so much. I can't wait for tomorrow just so I can sit and watch her.